I'm just trying to find out some other opinions on when to dismiss a dice roll. I already have my own rules/guidelines, but I want to know if and how they differ from the way other people play.

I consider a roll invalid if:

• The dice leave the table
• The dice hit something (i.e. the DM screen, other dice, a cup, etc.)
• Or if the dice don't land flat (i.e. catching in a crack)

Are these guidelines too harsh, too light? I just started DMing a couple weeks ago. Any opinion is helpful?

Rolls that go off the table are a 1, to encourage players to be careful. Rolls that don't land flat are re-rolled. But I've never heard of discounting rolls that hit something else; if you're running a table that's clear and organized enough to where dice really shouldn't be going across the table and intruding on anyone else's space, you could probably count those as a 1 too, but unless everyone has their own dice tray to roll in that seems a bit harsh to me. 

"The dice leave the table"

Yep. If it leaves the table, it isn't a valid roll.

"The dice hit something"

Nope. As long as the die lands flat on the table, whatever it hits in the process is irrelevant.

"Or if the dice don't land flat"

Yep. If the die is "cocked" (i.e. doesn't land flat) it isn't a valid roll.

So I agree with 2/3 of your guidelines.

Quote from TheCubester >>

 

"The dice hit something"

Nope. As long as the die lands flat on the table, whatever it hits in the process is irrelevant.

 Caveat: If the "something hit" equates to "deliberate interference by another player" (swatting the die, etc.) then the roll is invalid.

Most of the time when a die doesn't land flat, it is still leaning in favor of a single result. I usually take that.

I pretty much only reroll if it goes off the table or is interfered with by a person.

Now, I don’t use the “die boxes”, but with a flat table, I have never had a cocked die. Yet people’s die seemed to get cocked atleast once a session when they use die boxes. Is there a particularly architectural or engineering based reason they get cocked more often? Also,  I thought in general from the design standpoint, dice were designed to not get cocked on a level surface.

Quote from Robazathus >>

Now, I don’t use the “die boxes”, but with a flat table, I have never had a cocked die. Yet people’s die seemed to get cocked atleast once a session when they use die boxes. Is there a particularly architectural or engineering based reason they get cocked more often? Also,  I thought in general from the design standpoint, dice were designed to not get cocked on a level surface.

 In a dice tray when a die gets cocked it's usually one of two things: The player has other dice resting in the tray and the die they just rolled is leaning against one. Or the die ends up wedged against the corner of the tray. It's more common with dice trays that lay flat but can be snapped together to form a tray, since they have a more gentle slope at the corners.

Having had some players over the years that roll the dice like they're at a casino in Monte Carlo or think they're Elon Musk launching a satellite by hand I'm quite happy if the dice end up on the table with one face flat down on a hard surface.

Also, rolls made before the roll was called for don't count at my table. I find it annoying as DM when players anticipate rolls. I notice that when they anticipate rolls and roll poorly, they don't want to take that roll and instead they reroll when I ask them to make the roll :)

We have a guy with a beautiful Wyrmwood dice tray. The leather on the bottom can make dice bounce out of it pretty easily. We joke about bounced rolls being natural 1s, but I haven't ever enforced it. Mostly, it's just for the purpose of making jokes about him throwing yet another die out of the tray.

The kids I run DnD for try to use the "It touched something, re-roll it!" all the time.  I had to draw the line at that.  If it's on the floor or if it's not resting flat (because it landed on the edge of some paper or a book) we do reroll.

Hitting things though?  That happens ALL the time just by luck and I don't get into DnD to play the "I didn't miss!  That roll hit my cup!" game.

If I (as the DM) can read it and it lands flat, it's a good roll.

I say off the table rolls are fair. It's still the same thing, but the dice rolled longer. If anything, it's more random.

“If you roll it, it counts unless it is unreadable. Once rolled. Don’t touch it until it’s confirmed”

Quote from BobobSyxtieNein >>

I say off the table rolls are fair. It's still the same thing, but the dice rolled longer. If anything, it's more random.

 My thought was it's just too easy to cheat and just say, "Oh, it was a 20"... so either two people need to go looking for it to confirm where it landed before calling it out, the group has to trust each other pretty implicitly, or ultimately it will just be easier to just call it invalid and reroll on the table.

You could use the old (3rd edition maybe?) WH40k rule of “if you can’t hit the table with a die, your character cannot hit it’s target either.” That aught to ratchet up the tension a bit. (Please don’t actually do that. Or at least don’t say it was my idea. Lol)

Quote from EightPackKilla >>

“If you roll it, it counts unless it is unreadable. Once rolled. Don’t touch it until it’s confirmed”

 This also gets rid of the people rolling randomly when nothing’s happening/no rolls needed. I do this so they don’t do that disturbance, noise, dropping their dice, etc. by enforcing those rolls on things they do. I mark their rolls that I notice, in order, and roll a die behind my screen to see if it applies or not to whatever they do next. That way they can’t stack good rolls for whatever they want to do. But can prepare ahead of time possibly, for game flow reasons (bathroom/food grabbing/fridge run/kids). Of course, all of this stuff is disclaimed ahead of time. And mutually agreed upon as fair.

I’m kind of intrigued by the idea of having players start a session by rolling a dice pool (10 each of each dice type) which the DM writes down in a secret order to work down and check off. On the one hand it would speed play up a lot, and eliminate the players knowing that they failed a skill check because of a low roll... but on the other, rolling in the middle of the action is probably part of the visceral fun of d&d. Hmmm.

Quote from Chicken_Champ >>

I’m kind of intrigued by the idea of having players start a session by rolling a dice pool (10 each of each dice type) which the DM writes down in a secret order to work down and check off. On the one hand it would speed play up a lot, and eliminate the players knowing that they failed a skill check because of a low roll... but on the other, rolling in the middle of the action is probably part of the visceral fun of d&d. Hmmm.

 I’d advise against it unless they are away from table. Due to reasons like bardic inspiration. Peerless skill. Bend luck. Dark ones own blessing. Etc etc.

things to modify the rolls.

but for away from table. It is known fair game at my table. And I keep it fair rolling odds/evens for take next number or skip number. Of the numbers that pooled up.

edit- if someone blesses you. I make the “blesser” assume d4 rolls until you return.

When using a dice tray, I consider the roll invalid if it comes out of the tray.

If it leaves the table, reroll.

If it hits something, I don't care, it rolled what it rolled. In fact, it hit something which likely randomized it more.

If it is crooked, reroll, unless the table is slanted, a bumpy table cloth, or something like that. In a situation like that, whatever side is more parallel to the place the die was rolled is the number used to determine what was rolled.